The present invention relates to a material activating device and, more specifically, to an improved material activating device provided with a conductive metal layer interposed between a material to be activated and a layer of a radioactive means to activate the material efficiently.
Various technique have been proposed to improve combustion efficiency by irradiating intake air for an internal combustion engine for activation.
For example, an invention relating to xe2x80x9ca carburetor with ionizing element provided with an ionizing element containing a radioactive material that radiates low-level xcex1-rays, xcex2-rays or the like and disposed in a pipe in which air and fuel to be supplied to an engine is mixedxe2x80x9d is disclosed in JP-A No. Sho 52-131024.
As shown in FIG. 6, according to this invention, a body member 1 of a carburetor is lined with an annular ionizing element 2 of a nonabsorptive synthetic resin containing a radioactive material, and is coated with a radiation-protective layer 3.
The ionizing element 2 has a pleated contact surface 4 with which intake air comes into contact the pleated contact surface 4 has a large contact area.
An invention disclosed in JP-A No. Sho 53-16118 lines an intake duct for an engine with a coating layer that radiates radioactive rays, such as xcex1-rays, xcex2-rays or xcex3-rays.
A technique disclosed also in JP-A No. Sho 53-16118 suspends a 0.3 mmxc3x9710 mmxc3x9710 mm ionizing foil 7 of tritium having an radioactivity of 100 mCi by a suspension wire 8 inside an air cleaner disposed inside an intake duct 5 as shown in FIG. 7.
All those known techniques place a radioactive material in the intake duct of the engine to activate intake air for the engine by bringing intake air into direct contact with the radioactive material.
Contact time for which intake air is in contact with the ionizing element 2 or the ionizing foil 7 changes in inverse proportion to engine speed; the contact time decreases with the increase of engine speed.
Consequently, the known techniques are able to activate intake air for an engine slightly by the radioactive material and could not have exercise significant effects.
Furthermore, since those known techniques place the ionizing element 2 or the ionizing foil 7 in the intake duct of the engine, the ionizing element 2 or the ionizing foil 7 exerts resistance against the flow of intake air, and reduces the output of the engine instead of increasing the same.
If the ionizing element 2 or the ionizing foil 7 is disposed in the exhaust pipe of the engine and is exposed directly to the exhaust gas from the engine, the ionizing element 2 or the ionizing foil 7 is damaged by the heat of the exhaust gas.
Accordingly, the prior art material activating device cannot be used for the activation of the exhaust gas from an engine.
It is an object of the present invention to solve the foregoing problems in the prior art and to provide a material activating device capable of very efficiently activating materials, such as intake air taken in by an engine for combustion or the exhaust gas produced by combustion in an engine and discharged from the engine.
A material activating method stated in accordance with the present invention stated in claim 1 is characterized in interposing a conductive metal layer between a material to be activated and a layer of a radioactive means that generates radioactive rays for activating the material.
The present invention has been made on the basis of a knowledge acquired by the inventors of the present invention that xe2x80x9cthe activating effect of radioactive rays is enhanced significantly by a conductive metal layer interposed between a material to be activated and a layer of a radioactive means.xe2x80x9d
Further studies are necessary to explain clearly why the effect of radioactive rays is enhanced by such an arrangement. It is considered so far that the conductive metal layer is charged with charges produced when a material is ionized by irradiation with radioactive rays, the charged conductive metal layer creates an electric field and a magnetic field, and the electric field, the magnetic field and the ionized material interact to cause such a phenomenon.
It is known that the greater the specific gravity of the metal layer, the higher is the level of activation of the material.
Experiments proved that the activation of intake air for an automotive engine and the exhaust gas from the automotive engine by the material activating device of the present invention reduces the fuel consumption of the automotive engine by about 40% and reduces the carbon dioxide concentration of the exhaust gas from the automotive engine by 20% at the maximum when an automobile equipped with the automotive engine travels at a high traveling speed of 100 km/h.
According to the present invention, the conductive metal layer is interposed between the material to be activated and the radioactive means. When the intake duct or the exhaust pipe of the engine is used as the conductive metal layer, the radioactive means can be disposed outside the intake duct or the exhaust pipe of the engine.
Consequently, there is no possibility that the radioactive means exerts resistance on the flow of intake air for the engine or the radioactive means is damaged by the hot exhaust gas from the engine.
A material activating device stated in claim 20 comprises a layer of a radioactive means that generates radioactive rays for irradiating a material to be activated, and a conductive metal layer disposed on one side of the layer of the radioactive means so as to be interposed between the layer of the radioactive means and the material.
The conductive metal layer may be a partition wall separating the material and the layer of the radioactive means from each other or a wall defining a flow passage through which the material flows.
Generally, the intake duct, the exhaust pipe or the cylinder block, for example, of an automotive engine is formed of a conductive metal, such as steel or aluminum.
Accordingly, the material flowing along one side of the metal member can efficiently be activated by holding the radioactive means on the other surface of the metal member.
The layer of the radioactive means may be held on the holding member attached to the conductive metal layer to hold the layer of the radioactive means on the conductive metal layer.
Preferably, the holding member is formed of a conductive metal.
A material activating device stated in claim 25 comprises a conductive metal plate capable of being wrapped around a conduit through which a material to be activated flows, and a layer of a radioactive means that generates radioactive rays for irradiating the material, formed on one surface of the metal plate, wherein the conductive metal plate forms a conductive metal layer between the material and the layer of the radioactive means when the same is wrapped around the conduit.
Even if the conduit through which intake air flows, such as the intake duct of an automobile, is formed of a nonmetallic material, such as a polymer, the layer of the conductive metal can be formed around intake air for combustion to be activated by wrapping the material activating device around the conduit and the layer of the radioactive means can fixedly be formed on the outer side of the metal layer.
Although the present invention may use monazite powder as the radioactive means, any legally permitted radioactive substance may be employed.